PhD student Vaughan Nicholson, who is a qualified physiotherapist, will examine whether the coordination and balance for people aged over 55 can be improved by playing virtual balance games on a popular video game.

“The average age of the participants is early 70s,” Mr Nicholson explained.

“We are trying to determine if taking part in this popular balance program improves several clinical and laboratory-based measures of balance and mobility.

“Those measures then have a relatively direct relationship to predicting falls.”

Mr Nicholson said participants were required to complete three 30-minute sessions a week, over a six-week period, at their respective retirement villages.

“They will have nine balance games to select from, including tight rope walking and ski slalom, and they will have to adjust their body positions on the balance platform to navigate through the games,” he said.

“We’ll also look at the enjoyment they gain by playing these games because one of the protocols is that they have to do the gaming with at least one other person.”

Mr Nicolson said research had already shown that the games were effective for rehabilitation, but his project would be the first of its kind to examine the potential benefits of the game on healthy, independent older adults.

“If we get positive results from this study, then there is no reason why the balance games shouldn’t be incorporated into activities at retirement villages supporting independent living.”

USC services

Staff-only services

Locations

Pages on the USC website can contain information specific to one, many or all study locations. Make a selection from the options below to control which location-specific information is displayed. All locations are displayed by default.

Sippy Downs

Fraser Coast

SouthBank

Gympie

Noosa

Show all

This page is location-aware

Pages on the USC website can contain information specific to one, many or all study locations. Make a selection in the location settings (accessed via the footer or the button below) to control which location-specific information is displayed. All locations are displayed by default.